Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Huckabee Limits Junk Food, Soft Drinks In Arkansas Schools
In his continuing battle to improve the health of Arkansans, Governor Mike Huckabee successfully implemented his plan to increase physical activity and limit unhealthy snacks and soft drinks in Arkansas public schools when the State Board of Education approved the plan on Monday. The new exercise and junk food rules are a part of Huckabee's long-running campaign to improve health in Arkansas by creating innovative programs that have insured tens of thousands of previously unisured children, allocated 100% of the state's tobacco settlement monies to health improvement, measured and reported schoolchildrens' body mass index (BMI) to parents, and provided incentives for state employees to lead healthier lifestyles.The new public school exercise and junk food standards became necessary when a state study last year showed that 40 percent of Arkansas' 450,00 students are obese or overweight. These statistics, which are similar to national averages, are alarming to health care professionals because diseases like diabetes, hypertension and heart disease among young people are already on the rise.
Huckabee, who opposes un-funded mandates from the Federal government, had hoped to avoid issuing the new rules as an unfunded mandate to Arkansas' schools. He initially recommended that voluntary implementation be left to local school officials, and the state board voted in June to tentatively approve the standards as guidelines, giving districts discretion in implementing them.
But Huckabee changed his stance last month, after a public comment period in which professional medical groups, clinicians, the director of the Arkansas Department of Health, and others urged that the standards be mandatory for all 450,000 Arkansas public school children.
Huckabee, who became chairman of the National Governor's Association in July, is taking his often copied health initiatives to the national level to help combat a national epidemic of obesity among both children and adults. He launched his Healthy America initiative which is modeled after his nationally acclaimed Healthy Arkansas initiative.
BSR
